Ghanaians are living in fear – Ursula

The Vice President of FIDA International and a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ms Ursula Owusu, has told the President that insecurity really exists in the country and that he should deal decisively with it.

President John Evans Atta Mills re-stated at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Upper East Region on Saturday that he is going to deal “appropriately and decisively” with miscreants who are indulging in fear mongering and trying to create a semblance of insecurity in the country.

This follows the controversial mass bus rape and robbery story as told by Amina Mohammed, the lady who claims to have been on a Tamale-bound bus which she said was stopped by armed robbers midway through the journey.

She said the passengers were robbed and ordered at gun point to have sex on the bus – this included a father who was ordered to rape his 14-year old daughter – but the Police Service has insisted nothing of the sort ever occurred.

The President believes some detractors of his government are behind the scenes trying to create fear and panic among Ghanaians and cause disaffection towards his government. He has, in view of this, “directed the law enforcement agencies to deal appropriately and decisively with those who decide that peace is not what they want.”

But Ursula Owusu, who stated her strong believe that real insecurity still exists in Ghana, called on the President to rather direct the security forces to deal decisively with the situation to enable Ghanaians live in relative peace and security.

Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme Monday, Ursula recounted several incidents of robbery since the past week to buttress her point – “how many armed robbers were shot in Adjringanor the other day? Five! Just this morning, TIMES front page: Two busses robbed at Kintampo, last week, Five busses were robbed somewhere in the Western Region I believe…” “…if he [President Mills] is saying that insecurity does not exist in this country then I beg to differ.

We are all living in fear and we don’t know what is going to happen next time,” she said, adding “unless the President is telling us that based on where he sits, he has information that someone is actually orchestrating these highway robberies and armed robberies” Vice President John Dramani Mahama’s spokesperson, John Jinapor, who was a co-panelist on the programme, said he believes in the reports as given by the Police and called for further investigations into the matter.

“It is unfortunate that such a lady can take the whole nation to ransom on this very very unfortunate incidence,” he said, insisting that “…the case must be delved into and the court must determine and the necessary sanctions must be applied.”

He cautioned against a hasty conclusion by some people that there is insecurity in the country because there has been insecurity in Ghana since independence, maintaining that the phenomenon has reduced since the assumption of office by the Mils government. Mr Jinapor added that one incident of high profile robbery does not mean “we are living in insecurity…we are improving, there is still room for improvement and we will continue to do better.”

3 comments

Ignorant and heady comment! the question should be why to incite a civilized conversation on the topic. Ghana has it’s pros and cons and can always improve security for it’s civilians because of its continueous devlopment.